Transcript of Dr Carol Treasure’s speech at Lush Parliamentary Reception: 10th December 2025
Hello everyone! I’m Dr Carol Treasure. I’ve been working in the field of replacing animal testing for over 30 years and I founded XCellR8 18 years ago to bring real-world animal-free tests to industry. XCellR8 is the world’s first 100% animal product free testing lab and we’re based in the Northwest of England. In 2013, we were one of the first winners of the Lush Prize, for our work training other scientists to adopt animal-free test methods. Since then, we’ve been working closely with Lush to test their cosmetic products and ingredients, proving that animal-free safety assessment is possible. I’ve been asked to share my perspectives on the implementation of the Replacing Animals in Science Strategy, as a UK business owner, and specifically as the Founder and CEO of a UK SME working in the field of animal-free testing.
Over my 30+ years of working to replace animal testing with better science, we’ve seen truly remarkable progress in the field: genomic screening, reconstructed tissue models, organs-on-chips, computer modelling and AI. It’s never been so exciting as it is now, standing here today, with a historic opportunity for practical implementation that we’ve never seen before. But we must keep our feet on the ground. The UK strategy must now be implemented with a clear focus on real-world application.
What does this mean? I have learned that it’s not always about the sexiest science – exciting as that is – but how we apply it that counts the most. Only the effective translation of new technologies to the front line of industry will ultimately result in safer products and medicines for humans and animals, and a lasting, meaningful contribution to the UK economy. We must constantly ask ourselves: what is fit for purpose? In some cases, simple cell cultures are highly predictive, cheaper and faster than more complex systems. There is simply no point in more elaborate tests in cases where scientifically acceptable and financially accessible options make animal-free tests affordable for our UK companies to use. Quick wins are possible. Organisations must be incentivised to take a positive and pragmatic approach.
At XCellR8’s lab in Cheshire, I have a team of very talented and driven young scientists. As they work hard every day on the front line of change, neither expertise nor ideas are in short supply! But some things are in short supply, if we are to ensure meaningful change and a rising contribution to the UK economy. For example, the UK grant funding landscape for New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) is currently almost non-existent. In the past, XCellR8 has won funding from Innovate UK’s open programme, resulting in real-life, new animal-free tests being made available to industry. That programme has been discontinued, and announcements about a long-awaited replacement significantly delayed. I was heartened to speak with colleagues at Innovate UK yesterday, for a discussion about funding priorities to support implementation of the strategy. It’s critically important that funding is fairly and appropriately distributed through a range of UK funding bodies, with a clear focus on 1R (Replacement), and not the outdated 3Rs approach.
Some of the barriers to progress are less obvious than R&D, but equally important, if we are to build a robust infrastructure. We need access to an affordable, fast-track validation process for the acceptance of our new science into the regulatory framework. And we need support with regulatory compliance. Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) accreditation from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is critical if test data from our lab is to be accepted by global regulators, but the costs of implementing and maintaining GLP are crippling for small businesses. Such running costs ultimately affect the global competitiveness of UK labs.
Support for UK SMEs working in NAMs will not only build the infrastructure we need for a future-fit scientific industry in our country. It will also ensure homegrown, animal-free testing and research places the UK once again at the forefront of the global shift to animal-free, human-relevant science, rather than running the risk that large corporations will export UK technologies, favouring the creation of jobs overseas, or failing to share the new methods with wider industry. We cannot afford to lose our innovative science, or the talent that creates it.
In the big picture, it’s affordable, too. A few hundred thousand pounds can be a game-changer in some areas, compared with the millions upon millions currently being ploughed into outdated animal research. In these difficult economic times, we’re not asking for new money to be found – but a diversion of funds from the old science to the new.
One thing is clear. What we cannot afford is to get left behind. And the solutions are right in front of us. We just need the right people at the table, including the advisory committees, working together for positive change.There are many experts right here in the UK, across our SMEs and NGOs. Together we can do this!
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